ISSUED: 1/24/2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORMER NYPD AIDE PLEADS GUILTY IN INSURANCE FRAUD CASE

Superintendent of Insurance Gregory V. Serio today announced that a former New York Police Department administrative aide, Belinda Lovander, plead guilty Tuesday to using a police computer to operate a multimillion-dollar insurance scam.

At a hearing in Queens Supreme Court, Lovander admitted to filing 22 phony accident reports that allowed the ring to put in for $900,000 in fake medical bills and a potential $3 million in bogus liability. Lovander, 30, said she fabricated the reports from her computer terminal at the 113th Precinct station house in Jamaica.

She pleaded guilty to enterprise-corruption charges and is facing a sentencing of two to six years in jail.

In December of last year, Lovander was one of 112 charged in a massive undercover automobile insurance fraud investigation by the Department, Queens District Attorneys Office, New York City Police Department and New York State Police Department.

The investigation resulted in the indictment of nineteen individuals and four corporations in connection with the operation of a multi-million dollar automobile insurance fraud ring in the New York metropolitan area. Seven of the individuals and one of the corporations indicted were charged under the States Organized Crime Control Act with operating one of the largest no-fault insurance fraud rings ever uncovered in New York. In addition to Lovander, three medical doctors, two medical clinics, two chiropractors, a physical therapist, an acupuncturist, and two lawyers were charged. Ninety-three others were charged in separate criminal complaints with being participants in the scheme.